The present invention relates generally to athletic gloves and, more particularly, to gloves of the type used by baseball batters, golfers, tennis and racquetball players, and similar participants in other bat, club and racquet sports.
Gloves are commonly worn by athletes participating in various sports, particularly bat, club and racquet sports, to enhance the participant's grip. For example, for many years, baseball players have commonly worn specially designed thin leather gloves while batting to improve and enhance the batter's grip on the bat handle and, in turn, to optimize the batter's power and control in swinging the bat.
Conventional wisdom holds that the optimal gripping disposition of the baseball bat handle within a batter's hands is to allow the handle to be cradled loosely within the fingers in contact with the heel of the hand but otherwise at a spacing from the batter's palms so that the middle, ring and small fingers of the hands are used to exert the principal gripping force on the handle rather than the batter's forefingers and thumbs.
Unfortunately, the natural tendency of most baseball players is to hold the bat handle with a significant gripping force with the handle firmly pressed into the palms of the hands and into the crotch region between the thumb and forefinger of each hand. However, rather than improving the batter's power and control, this improper gripping technique causes the muscles in the batter's wrist and forearms to be tensioned and therefore detracts from the batter's ability to exert optimal force when swinging the bat. Also, the disposition of the bat handle against the batter's palms, together with the tension exerted in the wrists and forearms, resists the tendency of the batter's upper hand to turn or "roll over" the lower hand as the swing is completed, which is considered to be necessary and desirable to optimize the traveling speed of the bat at its outer hitting end.